The invention relates to the field of MEMS quadrupoles, and in particular to the operational conditions to improve the performance of a rectangular rod, planar MEMS quadrupoles with ion optics.
In recent years, there has been a desire to scale down linear quadrupoles. The key advantages of this miniaturization are the portability it enables, and the reduction of pump-power needed due to the relaxation on operational pressure. Attempts at making linear quadrupoles on the micro-scale were met with varying degrees of success. Producing these devices required some combination of microfabrication and/or precision machining, and tedious downstream assembly. For miniature quadrupole mass filters to be mass-produced cheaply and efficiently, manual assembly should be removed from the process.